AoS 2 - Wanderers Discussion

[Popisdead]

On 12/10/2018 at 11:03 AM, Gwill_of_the_Woods said:

Is that the Prince Maesa advent entry and the Inferno2 story?

What's the Idoneth book called?

How do you let Black Library know?

Originally I got both on my iPhone they day they were released.  I suspect they have been reprinted in other forms such as Inferno and yes Prince Maesa.  If there is an Advent entry for him that may genuinely be new?

The book is unreleased but upcoming.  However it is a full length novel, not one of the shorter novellas he's written about Deepkin.  I would highly recommend you get on BLs mailing list. 

I just email them directly.  There is a Contact Us address on their webpage.  Also when they post on social media (FB, Twitter, etc) follow up there and say "hey I'm really excited that there is a book coming out with a unit I love" or whatever.  I also rate things in iTunes (or whatever the iBooks store is on my phone).  5-star for anything wood elf related

[Kairos Tejedestinos]

Hey all.

I want to start a new army, and i am really into shooty hybrid armies that have shenanigans to control the board. Sylvaneth isn't shooty so i decided towards the wanderers.

I have the option to get 6 waystalkers, 2 spellweavers and 1 nomad prince very cheap, but apart from that what  would constitute a solid start? (think 1000 points but with plans to get into 2000 in the near future). If you also have examples of lists to give me a rough idea it would be great. Thank you all in advance.

 

This is an idea

 

Allegiance: Wanderers

Leaders
Spellweaver (100)
- Heartwood Staff
Waywatcher (120)
- General
- Trait: Stalker of the Hidden Paths 
- Artefact: Viridescent Shawl 
Waywatcher (120)
Nomad Prince (80)
- Artefact: Forget-me-knot 
Spellweaver (100)
- Heartwood Staff
Waywatcher (120)

Battleline
30 x Glade Guard (360)
20 x Sisters of the Watch (360)
10 x Eternal Guard (70)
10 x Eternal Guard (70)

Units
5 x Wild Riders (120)
5 x Wild Riders (120)

Battalions
Waystone Pathfinders (200)

Endless Spells
Quicksilver Swords (20)
Balewind Vortex (40)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 120
 

Edited December 12, 2018 by Kairos Tejedestinos

[WABBIT]

Is it me or does every wanderer army list for 2k look the same? I just looked at the dozens of various 8th edition army lists I had made on a spreadsheet years ago and they were awesome interesting and very different mostly without any allies. Some built for speed, others for shooting, themes, Combat, balanced, Monster Mash etc..These days I see army lists posted here and they look identical if in a different order. My comment is in no way a reflection on the community and players but the game itself. I haven't played in a while now and I dont see anything interesting to return to sadly. GW need to give us something more interesting than just shooting, its not fun to play against a shooting army so my usual opponents are not particularly enthusiastic about playing a game these days. At least in 8th I could rally the wild hunt and give my opponents a good scrap.

Our only battalion basically dictates almost our entire force making it predictable and quite frankly frustrating to play by the lack of choice in the army. Wild Riders are awful, SotT are way over priced with a nerfed spell. Its been years now and not enough has changed for Wanderers.

[Popisdead]

1 hour ago, WABBIT said:

Is it me or does every wanderer army list for 2k look the same? I just looked at the dozens of various 8th edition army lists I had made on a spreadsheet years ago and they were awesome interesting and very different mostly without any allies.

Not just you.  People are taking the battalion so they are all the same.

I wish they would change the Waystrider command ability to "attack again" akin to Slaanesh.  It would make people look for alternative avenues.  The army is pretty much neglected and even the bonus stuff we got was minimal and irrational (you can flee after losing half your army and still shoot). I would love to take an army of EG and Rangers with support for them.  

I look back at my 8th ed and they usually involved chasing weird things like "5 Great Eagles is good" or "EG bus"

Wild Riders aren't awful, they just only serve the purpose of objective grabbers.  Imagine if they were Centigor good.  The problem is Fast Cavalry was a mechanic of basing a fantasy game off Napoleonics and AoS is a fresh start of a fantastical game.  GW hasn't really figured out what to do with 

I have recently been posting and looking at the Living City to make an army more akin to what the classic Wood Elf army over the last 30 years.  Treelords, Glade Guard, maybe use the old Wardancer scroll.  Proxy the Halfing Hotpot as a Celestae Ballista.  

[Aelfric]

1 hour ago, Popisdead said:

I have recently been posting and looking at the Living City to make an army more akin to what the classic Wood Elf army over the last 30 years.

I've been considering this route as well.  I haven't taken it further mainly because I don't own the Firestorm campaign and, although I have the gist of the rules. I don't have the actual wording.  Also, without the book, I have nothing to show an opponent as confirmation.   £40 is a big investment for a few lines of rules; I doubt I would ever use the actual campaign material.

[Gwill_of_the_Woods]

I had a really good "open play" game the other day.

It was loosely matched, but most importantly all of the units were agreed upon by myself and my opponent that felt fluffy.

I took the following list:

GHB2018 Wanderers allegiance (1170 points)

Orion (general, with Wanderer key words but no summoning)

Nomad Prince (with star caster bow)

2x5 Wild Riders

5x Sisters of the Thorn

10x Eternal Guard

10x Sisters of the watch

 

vs

Tomb kings with GHB2018 Death grand allegiance (1180 points)

Royal Warsphinx (with an item from realm of light, something like a 5++)

3x Necropolis knights

2x 10 Tomb Guard

1x Mounted Liche Priest

Endless spell: Life swarm (because they look like scarabs)

 

It was open war cards, with rainy weather (reductions to run/charge and -1 to hit in shooting)

We had to obtain and defend 4 random objective markers.

 

We had an absolute blast.

I ultimately won the game in turn 3 or 4, but we really enjoyed. Part of the fun was agreeing on eachothers lists and what fit in thematically.

A unit of Wild Riders barely did 2 or 3 wounds to the Tomb Guard before dying in the next round of combat. Definitely need to be used differently from 8th, but were nice to mop up a couple of wounds once the shooting did the damage.

We've agreed to try different list and different units just to keep things fresh. Otherwise, like you said it's always a Waystone Pathfinder based list.

 

[Popisdead]

2 hours ago, Aelfric said:

I've been considering this route as well.  I haven't taken it further mainly because I don't own the Firestorm campaign and, although I have the gist of the rules. I don't have the actual wording.  Also, without the book, I have nothing to show an opponent as confirmation.   £40 is a big investment for a few lines of rules; I doubt I would ever use the actual campaign material.

I took a photo of the one page of the book from someone who bought it.  I agree with you the investment was ridiculous.  They could by now just release a PDF of the rules since I don't think the item is regular stock.  

2 hours ago, Gwill_of_the_Woods said:

It was open war cards, with rainy weather (reductions to run/charge and -1 to hit in shooting)

I only play with Open War cards and pick up games.  People fixate on tournaments, top meta and not just playing with your friends.  There is a small subset of players whom play at that tier but for the most part the majority of gaming is casual.

[WABBIT]

Well said Pops👍

[Gwendar]

On 12/13/2018 at 1:24 PM, Aelfric said:

I've been considering this route as well.  I haven't taken it further mainly because I don't own the Firestorm campaign and, although I have the gist of the rules. I don't have the actual wording.  Also, without the book, I have nothing to show an opponent as confirmation.   £40 is a big investment for a few lines of rules; I doubt I would ever use the actual campaign material.

As have I, but I think my biggest detractor in doing this is having to cart around woods and I keep all models\books contained to 1 bag. Suppose I could magnetize the trees to fit in the case and maybe the large front pouch is enough to hold the woods base. Just unsure if the deployment benefits are really worth it, though I would prefer to use (and paint) Dryads over EG so that alone could change my tune.

[Aelfric]

1 hour ago, Gwendar said:

As have I, but I think my biggest detractor in doing this is having to cart around woods and I keep all models\books contained to 1 bag. Suppose I could magnetize the trees to fit in the case and maybe the large front pouch is enough to hold the woods base. Just unsure if the deployment benefits are really worth it, though I would prefer to use (and paint) Dryads over EG so that alone could change my tune.

Yea, the carting of woods around is an issue.  I have 20 EG painted and that is enough for me at the moment.  It would be nice to flood the board with 10 units of 10 for 700 points, but not at the expense of my sanity.  I can see painting Dryads as being easier en mass;  Spray brown, wash, drybrush, highlight, add eyes and done.  

At the moment I'm concentrating my painting on Ironjawz, but am thinking of painting up another 20 SotW the next time I need a change.  I tend to drift a bit as I get bored doing too much repetitive hobby.

[Gwendar]

@Aelfric If I could be convinced of the usefulness without using woods I would definitely go for it. The idea would basically just be the standard 30 GG and 20 SotW with 2 Waywatchers. Everything else coming in the form of a couple blocks of Dryads, Durthu/Treelord and Kurnoths. All in all, I guess it's really just the Dryads that would benefit so maybe it's worth it. I didn't plan on running the Wanderers battalion anyway.

I know what you mean though, I've been building all 1k of Wanderers that I have the past 2 days and I find that I have to take 30 minute breaks between each group of 5 or I start to lose my mind. The plastic dust and glue probably don't help. 

[Aelfric]

34 minutes ago, Gwendar said:

@Aelfric If I could be convinced of the usefulness without using woods I would definitely go for it. The idea would basically just be the standard 30 GG and 20 SotW with 2 Waywatchers. Everything else coming in the form of a couple blocks of Dryads, Durthu/Treelord and Kurnoths. All in all, I guess it's really just the Dryads that would benefit so maybe it's worth it. I didn't plan on running the Wanderers battalion anyway.

I know what you mean though, I've been building all 1k of Wanderers that I have the past 2 days and I find that I have to take 30 minute breaks between each group of 5 or I start to lose my mind. The plastic dust and glue probably don't help. 

If I were to go this route I probably would take woods, maybe just one, to make use of the Branchwraith spell to summon Dryads.  She's 80 points compared to 100 for 10 Dryads, but you need woods to summon next to.  However, the opportunity to summon 10 Dryads a turn seems like a good deal.  They're not as good in tens, but then you're not paying for them, which leaves more points for other stuff.  If you don't want the hassle of woods, why not take the free spirits battalion - Spirit of Durthu plus 3 units of Kurnoths - for 120 points.  Free movement in the hero phase plus an artefact and command point seems a fair price.

[The Red King]

Painted my allied unit of hunters.

[Gwendar]

7 hours ago, Aelfric said:

If I were to go this route I probably would take woods, maybe just one, to make use of the Branchwraith spell to summon Dryads.  She's 80 points compared to 100 for 10 Dryads, but you need woods to summon next to.  However, the opportunity to summon 10 Dryads a turn seems like a good deal.  They're not as good in tens, but then you're not paying for them, which leaves more points for other stuff.  If you don't want the hassle of woods, why not take the free spirits battalion - Spirit of Durthu plus 3 units of Kurnoths - for 120 points.  Free movement in the hero phase plus an artefact and command point seems a fair price.

True. I did consider at least one but I may have to convince myself that it's worth it. And as great as that sounds, I've already settled on a more horde-like setup and if I went that route I may as well go full Sylvaneth, at least in my eyes.

For now, my 1k is done so I intend to have some 1k batreps up in the next week or two:

Allegiance: Wanderers
Waywatcher (120)
- General
- Trait: Masterful Hunter 
- Artefact: Wending Wand 
Waywatcher (120)
30 x Glade Guard (360)
10 x Sisters of the Watch (180)
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Scythes

Total: 980 / 1000

[Charlo]

BIG FAQ is out and the Wanderers got a little option in the preceedings...

Wild Riders can now take shields and re-roll saves of 1, at the expense of 2" of movement!

[The Red King]

I mean... seems worth it to me. 10 inches is pretty decent and they suffer from fragility more than mobility.

 

Im at work though, so is that all that changed for us?

Edited December 17, 2018 by The Red King

[DionTheWanderer]

1 hour ago, Charlo said:

BIG FAQ is out and the Wanderers got a little option in the preceedings...

Wild Riders can now take shields and re-roll saves of 1, at the expense of 2" of movement!

Great - because that unit clearly needed a nerf to counteract any improvement...  🙄

[Hallgeir]

I find the faq regarding the wild riders interesting. First off it shows that they are still thinking about wanderers. If we were headed for the deprecated life, they'd not bother to balance an unconsequential unit like WR. SotT, sure, pple ally that in. Second, this faq implies someone at gw was playtesting this unit and thought that 12“ move and armor rerolls together was somehow too strong... That boggles the mind. Or perhaps they simply realized that the models did in fact ship with shields on the sprue, and there were no rules for them. That and the models have a legitimate shield less build as well (with the dagger in hand) and so both needed to be accounted for. Personally, the move nerf ruins their only utility :getting in the way of shtuff before it wrecks you. A touch more defense isn't going to allow them to do that role better. 

 

Id be really interested now in where they see this faction going. 

[Charlo]

It most likely to do with the models rather than any grand idea of rules writing, but it's a cool option regardless!

[Hallgeir]

21 minutes ago, Charlo said:

It most likely to do with the models rather than any grand idea of rules writing, but it's a cool option regardless!

Yeah, options are always better, and they left the option of "no change". 

[Nick907]

I'm pretty happy about the new shield reroll, it shows that Wanderers are still an important enough faction to be given an update. I doubt a reroll 1 is the same value as 2" of movement, but that's okay.   Wildriders are a flavorful unit, especially when you make conversions.

 

[Gwill_of_the_Woods]

@The Red King, what are those skulls? They look cool!

[Gwill_of_the_Woods]

I like that they finally acknowledged that there are shields on the Wild Riders, but I am surprised at the movement nerf.

They must be some heavy-ass lead shields! 🤣🤣🤣

 

[Nadurebaile]

In the designers commentary they say the shields have no rules. This is either a mistake (most likely) or a small leak indicating a wanderers review, hopefully of the same scale as beasts of chaos (much less likely, but historically beastmen and wood elves were pitched as antagonists, so it isn't bonkers.) Also unlikely is a review of all shielded units that have them optionally for no disadvantage, as that's a lot of work for minutiae.

I'm wondering if similar unexpected small adjustments were given to beastmen before the tome dropped.

Am I a conspiracy theorist?

[The Red King]

8 hours ago, Gwill_of_the_Woods said:

@The Red King, what are those skulls? They look cool!

Just the beast skulls from the citadel skull box.  Im loving that box.